Sabotage

[Liut]

Anyone ever had a colleague do this to a story you've written out of pure spite?

I will be brief. Had a pretty heated dustup with someone about the front page. Since the individual had no interest in my editorial acumen, or lack thereof, I moved on.

Paper comes out, my byline was lifted and the first graf was intentionally un-indented. I checked the dropbox afterwards. Everything was in order. It was deliberate and I'm highly pissed.

 

[ChrisLong]

Let us know how quickly the perp is fired. And, what the paper does in terms of corrections, etc.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

What Chris said. This has to be immediate termination.

To answer the question - I've never seen this happen. I've seen disagreements where one side joked about doing such a thing, but even in the most heated of arguments have I ever imagined someone would actually do this.

 

[Liut]

That's just it, fellas, not a damn thing has been done. I'm more upset about that than anything else. That's one hell of a precedent because it, naturally, makes me wonder if it's going to happen again.

 

[CD Boogie]

That's just it, fellas, not a damn thing has been done. I'm more upset about that than anything else. That's one hell of a precedent because it, naturally, makes me wonder if it's going to happen again.

That's a terrible situation. Have you looked into frontier justice? Because if the powers that be aren't gonna do right by you and ****can that ****er, you need to have some recourse.

 

[MisterCreosote]

No doubt it's infuriating, but I don't see how that's a fireable offense.

 

[Big Circus]

It was deliberate and I'm highly pissed.

In other words, you can't stand it? You know he (or she) planned it?

 

[CD Boogie]

No doubt it's infuriating, but I don't see how that's a fireable offense.

Pulling the byline off a front page story and deliberating making the product look shabby by not indenting the lead graf? That's a slippery slope to let some putz try to ski on. Can't imagine it engenders too much trust amongst the rest of the staff, either. If he cops to doing it on purpose, I think there's cause to fire him. But if he pleads ignorance, yeah, it might be tough. You can still slash his tires, though. (JK; but not really.)

 

[Liut]

In other words, you can't stand it? You know he (or she) planned it?

It looked fine when I was handed a printed proof. That's when the disagreement began.

 

[Ace]

Just to put this out there, sometimes all signs point to one obvious culprit but what you assume isn't necessarily true.

That's why they run through 2 or 3 suspects before finding the real bad guy on Law & Order.

 

[Liut]

Pulling the byline off a front page story and deliberating making the product look shabby by not indenting the lead graf? That's a slippery slope to let some putz try to ski on. Can't imagine it engenders too much trust amongst the rest of the staff, either. If he cops to doing it on purpose, I think there's cause to fire him. But if he pleads ignorance, yeah, it might be tough. You can still slash his tires, though. (JK; but not really.)

I don't even know if there has been a verbal reprimand. Nothing of the sort has been relayed to me.

 

[Liut]

Just to put this out there, sometimes all signs point to one obvious culprit but what you assume isn't necessarily true.

That's why they run through 2 or 3 suspects before finding the real bad guy on Law & Order.

Fair enough and a good point. This is a small shop, though. Smallest I've ever worked at. The suspects are limited to two and it could have been a tag-team effort. They are tight.

 

[Big Circus]

It looked fine when I was handed a printed proof. That's when the disagreement began.

Just making a reference to the following song. And for the record, **** your coworker.

 

[Liut]

Just making a reference to the following song. And for the record, **** your coworker.

Sorry, man! LOL!

 

[CD Boogie]

Fair enough and a good point. This is a small shop, though. Smallest I've ever worked at. The suspects are limited to two and it could have been a tag-team effort. They are tight.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if they removed your byline, then the only ones who can look bad to anyone (especially on staff) are these two people, no? It's not like they left your name on it and had you quoting the Superintendent of Pubic Schools.

 

[Ace]

I don't even know if there has been a verbal reprimand. Nothing of the sort has been relayed to me.

If I was in your shoes, I would take the proof to the editor/publisher/bossman and say,

"Hey, I just wanted to point this out to you, Boss.

My byline was on this A-1 story and the formatting was correct on this proof. Then I had a discussion with XXXX about the look of the front-page and in the morning my byline was gone and the formatting was wrong.

I don't know if XXXX didn't like my suggestions or there was some kind of error made by the desk, but I assumed you would want to know so you can make sure this doesn't happen again."

 

[Big Circus]

Sorry, man! LOL!

You gotta set it straight, this Watergate!

 

[CD Boogie]

If I was in your shoes, I would take the proof to the editor/publisher/bossman and say,

"Hey, I just wanted to point this out to you, Boss.

My byline was on this A-1 story and the formatting was correct on this proof. Then I had a discussion with XXXX about the look of the front-page and in the morning my byline was gone and the formatting was wrong.

I don't know if XXXX didn't like my suggestions or there was some kind of error made by the desk, but I assumed you would want to know so you can make sure this doesn't happen again."

...and then go slash his tires.

 

[Liut]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if they removed your byline, then the only ones who can look bad to anyone (especially on staff) are these two people, no? It's not like they left your name on it and had you quoting the Superintendent of Pubic Schools.

No, you're not missing anything. I've been around long enough to not care as much about bylines as I did when I was a pup and, yeah, I guess I should thank them for at least taking my name off if they were going to screw it up. Bottom line is I cannot trust these dingbats with anything moving forward.

 

[Ace]

...and then go slash his tires.

Goes without saying ...